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Outside the House The Grounds Inside the House More Inside

Looking at stairs from inside entry
from entry

The first floor of the house retains more of the original look of the house, so that's all that's shown here.

The front door opens onto a deep entry area. To the right is a relatively narrow stairway up to the second floor, which was extensively remodeled to allow dormitory bedrooms and baths when the house was owned by the Niagara Institute.

On the left of the stairs can be seen the entrance to the serving area. In the foreground are double doorways leading into the left and right front rooms.

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Front left room from dining room wall
left front room

Left front fireplace
left front fireplace

Outside Wall
pilaster
XXXXXX
Dining Room Wall
pilaster

Front left room with open door to dining room
left front room

The simple Doric half columns in the front left room came from the porch outside the house during the latest remodeling, and were moved inside and halved. The marble and brick fireplace is original to the room, as is the marble framed mirror above the mantle. The wall opposite the front wall with the half columns is a large double door leading into the dining room, this doorway also flanked by half columns.

The dark wooden double doors on the front wall lead to the outside porch, while the windows to the right, on the left of the fireplace, give another view of that front porch to an enclosed side porch.

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Dining room with doors to front left room and side porch
dining room

Dining room with door to back porch
dining room

Ceiling medallion
ceiling medallion

Dining room fireplace
dining room fireplace

Dining room built-in
dining room built-in

The dining room, as with the other ground floor rooms, is ringed with doors, allowing summer breezes to circulate easily, cooling the rooms. The fireplace here is wood, rather than marble, and decorative Ionic pilasters set it off. To the right is a built-in shelf space with cabinet, the top set off with a full column on the right, and an abbreviated one on the left [unseen here].

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Entry to front right room
entry to front right room

Front right room
front right room

Front right room looking to entry
front right room looking to entry

Randwood R over doorway
front right room looking to entry

Pilaster detail to right of doorway
pilaster detail

Built-in bookcase detail [speckling from lightening dark original]
builtin bookcase detail

The right front room is extremely formal, with flat pilasters mirroring the rounded half columns in the front left room. The built-in bookcase may identify the room as the library. Henry Lansing's will explicitly mentions his library at Woodlawn.

History of Ontario County
    NY, Conover & Aldrich, pub 1893, pg 491 - 493
Continued from
Mr. Lansing was essentially. a domestic man, he was fond of his home and devoted to his family. He was ever led to seek the highest happiness in his own domestic circle and possessed in a high degree those social qualities which belong to the refined and cultured gentleman. In a certain sense Mr. Lansing was the fruit of hereditary culture his father and grandfather on the paternal and materna1 side were bon vivants and connoisseurs. He prided himself upon his accurate judgment and discrimination in the choice of and selection of fine wines, and was an epicure in the best sense of the word, a lover of life's good things.

In one particular, in which business men are too generally negligent, Mr. Lansing excelled; he had cultivated the art of letter writing until his epistolary style became of rare excellence. He could express himself in the readiest and neatest way with great apparent ease, his letters were bubbling over in sentiment, expressed with great felicity and beauty, as all who ever received them will bear testimony.

Mr. Lansing was extremely fond of the sylvan sports, was an exceedingly good shot and an expert fisherman. In the years gone by, in order to indulge in the latter sport, he was compelled to make his own flies, and it was that accomplished gentleman and skillful sportsman, Alexander Jeffrey of Lexington, Ky., but who at that time lived in Canadaigua, who taught him how to make and use them, and it was this same gentleman who taught Seth Green, of Rochester, N.Y., who became the State's most expert fisherman, all he knew about angling.

Mr. Lansing was a most delightful companion and enjoyed good company, but it had to be the best in order to afford him any pleasure. He was extremely fond of poetry and had no end of quotations upon his tongue's end, and possessed the unusual faculty of being able to repeat from memory whole pieces, no matter how long they were, provided they awakened a responsive chord.

Mr. Lansing, coming as he did from a military family, very naturally inherited military tastes, and shortly after the outbreak of the Civil war was appointed by the governor of New York chairman of the Senatorial Committee of his Senatorial District, which was composed of the following very prominent citizens of Buffalo: Nathan K. Hall, Stephen G. Austin, Jacob Beyer, John Ganson, Philip Dorsheimer, and Alexander W. Harvey. At this time Mr. Lansing was brigadier-general of one of the brigades attached to the 8th Division of the State militia. Mr. Lansing served faithfully upon this committee and through its efforts Colonel Chapin's regiment, the One Hundred and Sixteenth New York Volunteers, and McMahon's Irish regiment, the Corcoran Guards, were organized, recruited and sent to the front, where they did most excellent service.

Mr. Lansing departed this life, after a tedious illness which he bore with great fortitude, at Canandaigua, on the morning of the 30th of September, 1889, and left him surviving a widow and two sons, Livingston and Watts Sherman Lansing. He was buried at Forestlawn Cemetery, Buffalo, NY.

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Serving area looking to dining room and door to entry
looking to dining room and door to entry

Serving area looking to entry and back stairs
looking to entry and back stairs

Newer back porch addition
late added back porch

Will of Henry Livingston Lansing, died 1889
I, Henry L. Lansing of the township of Niagara, County of Lincoln Canada, but at this present writing residing in the Village of Canandaigua, County of Ontario, State of New York, United States of America, do make and declare this to be my last will and testament.

First: I give and bequeath to my wife Catharine Olivia, all the furniture, paintings, engravings belonging to me, also my library and all my horses, harnesses and carriages all of which are now in "Woodlawn" Canada.

Will of Catharine Olivia Gibson Lansing, died 1897
The following articles were specifically bequeathed by the terms of the Will to Catharine O. Lansing, being the silver and plated ware formerly in use at Woodlawn, Niagara, Canada.

Quantity Item Price
1 Asparatus fork $XX2.00
1 Cake Basket 2.00
1 Cake Basket broken 2.00
1 Egg Boiler 1.50
1 Pair of Coasters 2.00
1 Cream Scraper 2.00
15 Table Spoons 15.00
1-10/12 Dozen Table Forks 15.00
1 Dozen Table Forks 12.00
21 Teaspoons 11.00
1-1 1/2 Doz. Egg Spoons 8.50
1 Doz After Dinner Coffee Spoons 4.00
5 Salt Spoons .75
4 Flower Vases 2.00
4 Salt cellars 1.60
1/2 Doz Salt cellars porcelain lined 1.50
1/2 Doz Egg Cups .75
1 Sugar Bowl & Teakettle urn 25.00
4 Gravy Ladles 4.00
2 Fruit Spoons 1.00
1 Maccaroni Spoon 2.00
2 Sugar Sifters 2.00
1 Tea Caddy Spoon .75
1 Pickle Fork 1.00
3 Fruit Spoons 4.50
1 Pie Knife 1.50
2 Fruit Spoons 3.00
2 Fish Forks 3.00
2 Fish Forks $131.35

Portraits of Prominent Pioneers
Ontario County Times, December 7, 1910

The early bankers, Mr. Henry B. Gibson and Mr. Thomas Beals, were among the most important and interesting characters in early Canandaigua. They were both men of high business ability and unquestioned integrity, but they had peculiarities of manner and speech taht will be long remembered. Stories illustrating these peculiarities and also their somewhat eccentric but always prompt and fair ways of doing business are current in the community. Of Mr. Beals, whose portrait has long been a feature of the Court House collection, the Times has heretofore published a sketch. Until this week the gallery has been without a portrait of Mr. Gibson.

This lack has been supplied through the action of Mr. Livingston Lansing, who is a grandson of the famous banker and who is now living at his home in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario Canada. Responding to an editorial in The Times, which called attention to the fact that the Court House collection was lacking portraits of several men prominent in the early history of the village, Mr. Lansing presented to the County Historical Society the handsome oil portrait of Mr. Gibson in his posession with the suggestion that it be turned over to the custodians of the Court House and added to the collection which is hung there. The transfer was made at the meeting of the Board of Supervisors last week Tuesday, and the portrait has since been given a place on the walls of the County Court room.

Continue looking at inside pictures of Randwood/Woodlawn

First Lansing owners of Woodlawn, Woodlawn Cemetery, Buffalo NY
Henry L. Lansing and wife





Outside the House The Grounds Inside the House More Inside

empty Family Tree
emptyFamily Tree


Henry L. Burnett
Brig. Gen.
Henry L. Burnett



Henry Livingston Lansing
Brig. Gen.
Henry L. Lansing



Gibson
Henry B. Gibson


Morris
NJ Governor
Lewis Morris



Breese
Breese
Family



Henry Livingston
Night Before Xmas
Henry Livingston



Bush
President
George Bush



Father
Father
Bradley Van Deusen


Jean
Mother
Jean Van Deusen


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